A survey conducted on data security reveals that while it's clear that the average consumer understands the importance of safeguarding their laptops and personal information, there is a need for better consumer understanding of the need to protect both the device and data.

The survey from Absolute Software Corporation asked respondents to rank their top security concerns, and found that 62 percent of consumers listed 'losing the data on their laptops' and 'identity theft' as their primary worries. Surprisingly, while most respondents identified device and data security as a key issue, survey results indicated a large percentage of consumers were still not taking the necessary precautions to protect both the device and data.

The survey also revealed that consumer security concerns are driving interest in more traditional enterprise security and device management solutions for their personal devices, including:

• Geolocation (53 percent)
• Remote file retrieval (50 percent)
• Device freeze (50 percent)
• Remote data delete (40 percent)
• Mobile security applications (18 percent)

Additional survey results indicate that:

Hardware security concerns involve more than just laptops - According to the survey, 57 percent of respondents reported owning more than seven technology gadgets per household, including laptops, cell phones and digital cameras. Consumers are expressing interest in products designed to aid in the management of these devices. Early adopters have pegged mobile device security offerings as a logical next step, with 18 percent of respondents indicating that they would be very interested in a mobile security application. 

Data loss more critical to consumers than hardware loss - While the loss of a computer or other hardware device is a critical concern for consumers, the data they often contain has become invaluable. According to the survey, data loss (62 percent), identity theft (62 percent) and unauthorized access to files contained on a database (51 percent) are identified as higher security concerns than the loss of the computer itself (41 percent.)